It's time Sir Gus O'Donnell offered a sherry and a quiet word to his Scottish
subordinate, writes Alan Cochrane.

For all three of Scotland's opposition leaders to make a formal complaint about the behaviour of the country's senior civil servant is something of a departure. However, there can be little doubt that the language used by Sir Peter Housden, the permanent secretary at the Scottish Executive, is not exactly what we are used to from a supposedly neutral mandarin.

As a result, Sir Gus O'Donnell, the head of the Home Civil Service, must take seriously the new and specific complaints from Iain Gray, of Labour, Annabel Goldie of the Tories and Willie Rennie of the Liberal Democrats, even if he appeared to reject general concerns about the politicisation of officialdom when he visited Edinburgh yesterday.

At best, Sir Peter's clearly stated high regard for his SNP masters, contained in the weekly emailed memos he sends to Scotland's 5,000 civil servants – entitled "Updates from the Perm Sec" – could be judged overenthusiastic.

At worst, however, it gets close to becoming politically partisan. To some, his words suggest Sir Peter may have "gone native", which is about the worst epithet that can be applied to any mandarin.

There is obviously no harm in civil servants working enthusiastically for their political masters, of whatever party; indeed doing just that, while maintaining total impartiality, is what has earned the British Civil Service its worldwide reputation for integrity and efficiency.

But the language employed by Sir Peter to his staff is, to say the least, unusual. For instance, after the SNP landslide in May, his memo enthused about the "strengthening" of the Scotland Bill, currently before Westminster, which is an SNP objective not shared by either the Coalition parties nor Labour.

He appears equally excited about the "constitutional reform" that may emerge from the referendum on independence and declares that the limited recommendations of the Calman Commission, which form the basis of the Scotland Bill, as well as what he calls "the status quo" – in other words, Scotland's current position within the Union – "seem lost in the mists of time". In that same memo, Sir Peter encourages his staff to read a decidedly pro-independence newspaper article and, to my mind almost hilariously, recommends that all civil servants should go and see the play "Dunsinane", then playing at Edinburgh's Lyceum Theatre and which one reviewer said involved the tale of an English army seeking to impose order on Scotland.

This play, adds Sir Peter, who was born in Shropshire, was director of education in Nottingham and was a late entrant to the upper reaches of the Civil Service, "speaks to our genuine condition as a nation". Really, Sir Peter? Which nation might that be?

A more recent epistle hailed Finance Minister John Swinney's recent spending review. Nothing wrong with that in principle, although some may find Sir Peter's words of praise bordered on excessive sycophancy. He extended his congratulations to Mr Swinney and the Cabinet "for the vision, skill and energy that has gone into these proposals …"

And he said that civil servants had helped the SNP administration to build a "reputation for competence, integrity and an innovative approach to public policy", adding that their programme was "ambitious and exciting".

Sir Peter also appears animated about the prospect of a change of attitude among his colleagues in Whitehall towards Scotland now that the SNP was in power.

The issues raised by Messrs Gray and Rennie and Miss Goldie must be taken seriously but if Sir Peter cannot mask his wholeheartedness for the Nats a bit better, then Sir Gus – GOD, to his colleagues – should have a quiet word with him. You know, in the best traditions of Yes Minister – over a glass of sherry, perhaps. But a change of tone and attitude from the man at top of St Andrew's House must be the end result.